Can't Dream? Night Terrors vs Schisms.

Maj. Dick

Lieutenant Junior Grade
Red Shirt
When I first saw schisms, I didn't care for it because it was a very similar story to the Season 4 episode Night Terrors which was one of my favorites as a kid. Both are about characters not being able to have R.E.M. sleep and are horror themed. I now love both to almost the same degree. I feel like Schisms is more consistent in quality, but Night Terrors is comparable to Exorcist 3 and Nightmare on Elm Street for unsettling creepiness. Everyone dumps on Troi floating in a green void, but the rest of that episode is the best horror the franchise has ever done (The morgue scene is still perfection). Which episode do you prefer?
 
I feel like there's a tangible difference between the 2 themes. At its core, Night Terrors is about the terrifying madness of sleep deprivation, the slow descent into loosing control of your mind & grip on reality... and the episode does a marvelous job at putting us in there with them

Schisms is about the Bogeyman who comes in your sleep to do unthinkable things while you are vulnerable, leaving behind the trace of subconscious trauma. It really reaches its peak creep factor in the holodeck recreation.

Granted, both episodes are great Halloween fare, & my favorite depends on how you rate them. Schisms is a better overall execution, but if you're like me & just love to watch the actors do their thing, then Night Terrors is a better choice because you can revel in watching all the cast members totally nail every moment of mental decay, & it sustains the creep factor throughout multiple scenes.

I've never felt more hopelessness from that show than Picard confiding their dire circumstances to Data, who he knows may be their only hope, & the utter dejection he exudes at seeing Data fail to display an adequate level of emotional investment.

Data has "iced" a number of people over the course of the show, his last moments with Kila Marr & Kivas Fajo for example, but that one with Picard really hurt lol
 
Why would Picard have been upset at that? He knew Data was incapable of emotion. And Data's android nature made him perfect for taking command in that situation.
 
Why would Picard have been upset at that? He knew Data was incapable of emotion. And Data's android nature made him perfect for taking command in that situation.
He wasn't upset. He was seemingly crestfallen that Data seemed to not echo the gravity of the situation in tone. Desperate people want to feel like you empathize. Data does not. I'm sure he knew Data understood, but he was exhausted, losing his mind and & stricken with despair... And Data's robotic response just wasn't very encouraging under the circumstance lol
 
When I first saw schisms, I didn't care for it because it was a very similar story to the Season 4 episode Night Terrors which was one of my favorites as a kid. Both are about characters not being able to have R.E.M. sleep and are horror themed. I now love both to almost the same degree. I feel like Schisms is more consistent in quality, but Night Terrors is comparable to Exorcist 3 and Nightmare on Elm Street for unsettling creepiness. Everyone dumps on Troi floating in a green void, but the rest of that episode is the best horror the franchise has ever done (The morgue scene is still perfection). Which episode do you prefer?

"Night Terrors" for me (esp. the morgue scene... and especially the Guinan scene:



Now that scene even beats this one:



Or this one:



Or this one:



!

But I do like the mystery and how it unfolds.


"Schisms" sorta works yet sorta doesn't. At least for me. It's better than a lot of season 6, though.
 
Had I been Picard, I'd have been VERY encouraged. Maybe everyone else was unraveling, but Data was still Data.
Really? because by himself he wouldn't have fixed this one. He needed Troi's telepathic communications to have any clue what to do about the problem & if he hadn't had that, if she'd been unable to make sense of them, they'd have all gone mad just like on the Brattain.

He's pretty amazing, but I doubt he could stop 1000 people from killing each other, unless he anesthetized the entire ship, at which point he'd just be alone until the ship died from having it's energy syphoned away by the Tyken's Rift, possibly the energy that powers himself as well.

They escaped by one of the thinnest margins ever in this one, & Data alone would not have saved anybody this time. If anything, as people went insane, his deadpan behavior during it would've been even more infuriating. They'd have maybe even outplayed him, just like they did in The Game, because they'd have begun suspecting him, just like all those crew in ten forward were going conspiracy crazy already.
 
Night Terrors" for me (esp. the morgue scene... and especially the Guinan scene:
I love both those scenes, especially since it shows that yes, Federation civilians have the right to bear arms... though for me, Schisms edges NT out because of that truly awesome "I've been in this room before" scene on the holodeck.
 
I love both those scenes, especially since it shows that yes, Federation civilians have the right to bear arms... though for me, Schisms edges NT out because of that truly awesome "I've been in this room before" scene on the holodeck.

That's what took me out of the episode. The camerawork is nice, but the computer somehow creates imagery based on very vague input and is 100% perfect each time. 1000000000000% perfect when the table changes from wood to metal.

But the scenes where they dimensionwizzle into the clicky alien realm brought me back in - those were gooooood. Wish they were related to the crawfish in "Conspiracy"...
 
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